West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-11-25
Chicago Tribune. Oct. Is.

Chicago Tribune, Oct. Is.
CHARLEsToN-KANAwHA, w. Va,
Oct. 13.-Chicago people mostly i'm
agine they know it all. Being a
Chicago man j thought so myself.
l had to 90 to Richmond last week,
and was forced to pass through that
ancient and quiet town on the sleepy
waters Of the Ohio called Cincin-
natl. Doing so | someway or other
got hold of a ticket by way of the
Big Four and the Newport News ~
Mississippi Valley Roads; and to
my astonishment, found there were
some men outside of Ch;cago-out.
side, though they'll soon be inside
who were quietly working bigger
schemes than anything we dream Of.
l refer to the gigantic transconti-
mental railway system of c. p. Hunt
ington and his chums, Crocker and
Stanford. Silently and steadily
these "Rings of California" as they
are, have been at work for the last
twenty years trying to gather the
waters of the Chesapeake bay and
the Golden Gate with strings of
steel. The thingsis done. Through
trains run from Newport News, on
Hampton roads, to New Olleans,
and thence to San Francisco. The
great main stem runs from the sea,
across the states of Virginia, West
Virginia and Kentucky, to Cincin-
natl; thence the main line runs
south, while two great branches run,
one to st. Lonis, and the other, cross
ing the Ohio river by magnificent
bridge now building at Cincinnati,
is carried over and through that
town on a gread viaduct and passes
straight on to Chicago. The cotton
of the South, the corn of Kansas and
the Middle West, and the wheat of
Minnesota and the Northwest are
all to go to Newport News, the new
Virginia city by the sea. The thing
is done-that is the strangest part
of it-and we people of Chicago
hardly know it, so quietly has the
tremendous work gone on. When
this great Ohio bridge is finished,
in few months more, Chicago then
has the highest line to the seq, over
the lowest grades by way of this
new Southern highway. And a
great achievement it is. All this
astonished me; and, when we passed
into the West Virginia and came out
into the Great Kanawhs Valley,
broad and fertile-a translucent
river winding in its midst, whose
green waters, rising in North Caro-
lima close to Georgia and Tennessee,
cross three States in their 300 or
400 miles journey to the Ohio-the
continually Tightening mountains
basking up on each side of us till we
entered the canon OF New River up
per Kanawha); when l looked out
and saw coal-mine after coal-mine,
village after village, and hundreds
of coke-ovens, my interest was still
further awakened. Indeed, it seem
ed to me well to tarry a while in
this section Of natural wealth as |
came back again. l have done so,
and l now write you of what L find.
This bustling little city of Char
lesion, Cor Charleston-Kanawha as
now it is being called to distinguish
it from Charlestown in Jefferson, J is
just about in the middle of the great
valley-half-way up, as it were.
Here focus the politics of the State
that is yet to be the first to break
from the Solid South for liberty and
Republicanism; here stir the new
life and energy that are so fast
transforming this valley, and sect
ion. and State Just behind it, up
on the waterway improved by the
free locks and dams of Uncle Sam,
are the fifty or more coal mines and
coke ovens of the Kanawha and
New River coal belts-the Goals be-
ing among the finest going into Chi
cage, the cokes claimed to be the
finest yet made-250 to 800 miles
nearer the West and Northwest by
rail than Pennsylvania and Connells-
vile, and 800 miles nearer by water.
And all this growth has sprung up
during the last ten or a dozen years.
Great attention is now being turned
to the Goals and cokes Of this region.
All the mines are taxed to their ut
most to supply the demand, and
more are being opened. The char
acteristic of the coal is a remarka-
bic freedom from sulphur and low
per cent of ash. The cokes have
less per cent of phosphorus than
Connellsville, are quite as low id
sulphur, and have s to 10 per cent
less ash. The wheat cars ON their
way northwest again are filled with